Deborah Coviello: A CEO’s Compass to Get Back on Track

Episode recap:

Known as The Drop In CEO™, Deborah Coviello, a respected leadership consultant, joined Marcel to discuss her journey of self-discovery that led her to write her seminal book, The CEO’s Compass. She emphasized the importance of peace of mind, humility, and investing in mentoring and coaching programs to develop essential skills.

Guest Bio:

Known as The Drop In CEO™, Deb’s superpower is lowering the temperature and elevating conversations with empathy and patience. As a speaker, author, podcaster, and consultant, she teaches C-Suite leaders how to establish a “Lift, Light, Lead” environment and create calm amidst chaos or crisis. She is the author of “The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track” and “The NEW CEO Playbook: Stop Chasing Results and Start Pursuing Peace of Mind.”Her long-running podcast, The Drop-In CEO, ranks in the top1.5% globally among Apple Podcasts.

Quotes:

• "If something doesn't feel right, it's probably not right. And if your heart is telling you to go in a certain direction, trust it."
• "People are not transactions. We are humans. And when we can listen, show that we heard them, understand them, and see them for who they are, that is a way of showing practical love in the workplace."
• "Slow down to speed up. Get to know the people and what made them great."

Takeaways:

• Ask your team members how your company's purpose translates to their specific role and daily work.
• Schedule monthly one-on-one meetings focused on personal development, not just project updates.
• Reflect on your leadership style: Are you creating an environment where people feel seen, heard, and valued?
• Identify one external mentor or coach who can help you develop essential leadership skills.

Timestamps:
[00:11] How Deb Stepped into Leadership Her Way
[03:22] The Wake-Up Call That Changed Deb’s Leadership Style
[08:08] How Deb Defuses Conflict with Just Her Presence
[10:52] Why The CEO’s Compass Starts with Peace of Mind
[14:46] What Happens When Mentorship Is Missing at Work
[16:42] Four Compass Points That Keep Teams on Track
[32:13] Making Purpose Tangible for Everyone on the Team
[35:35] How Humility and Curiosity Can Quiet Workplace Ego
[36:17] Why Leaders Need Outside Eyes to Grow Their Teams
[41:35] The Small Acts That Make a Leader Worth Following

Conclusion:
Good leadership begins with truly understanding the people you work with—not just their roles, but also their goals, strengths, and values. When leaders invest in mentoring, thoughtful coaching, and a supportive work place, they open the door for better ideas and stronger dedication. A calm, clear mind helps leaders listen more fully and respond with care. This kind of leadership builds trust and skill across the entire team. Over time, it creates a work culture where people feel motivated, capable, and proud of what they contribute.

Links/Resources:
Website: https://dropinceo.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahacoviello/
The CEO’s Compass–Your Guide to Get Back on Track on Amazon:
https://bit.ly/OrderCEOCompass

Transcript

Marcel Schwantes 00:11
Hey gang, welcome back to the show! With us today is Deb Coviello, leadership consultant, designated CEO whisperer and the author of the highly acclaimed book, The CEO's Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track, can't wait to dive into that. Known as the “Drop in CEO,” Deb's superpower is lowering the temperature and elevating conversations with empathy and patience. I'm going to ask her about that. As a speaker, author and consultant, she teaches C-suite leaders how to establish what she calls a lift, light, lead environment and create calm amidst chaos or crisis. I love that. In addition to the CEOs compass, she also authored The NEW CEO Playbook: Stop Chasing Results and Start Pursuing Peace of Mind. I see a pattern developing here, all right. Her long running podcast, The Drop in CEO is in the top 1.5 globally, a percent globally among Apple podcasts and Deb Coviello now joins us. Welcome to the show, Deb!

Deborah Coviello 01:27
Oh Marcel, I am thrilled to be here. Thank you so much. I hope I can provide a little bit of value and insight for your audience. But again, so looking forward to the conversation.

Marcel Schwantes 01:38
Me too. I think we don't know this yet, but I think that as we talk throughout this episode, we're going to find so many connecting points, because I think you and I are sort of like kindred souls. We don't know that yet, so here we go, for people not familiar with you just yet, what's your story? 

Deborah Coviello 01:58
All right, well, again, how much time do I have here? But honestly, just on the personal side, I've been married for 35 years to my best friend. I have the good fortune of having three adult children that are becoming amazing citizens of society. And by the way, I curl, I do throw stones on ice, sweep and yell at people. We might be able to dive there. But fast forward, I was a STEM professional, love science technology. Got an engineering degree, which brought me into the industry of electronics and chemical manufacturing. I love manufacturing, taking nothing and turning into something. And I found skills in the area of quality and operational excellence make it better, faster, cheaper. Love that work. Love seeing the results.

And all along the way, I had some leadership skills, which brought me to higher and higher levels of leadership. Eventually became the head of operational excellence and quality for North America for the number one global flavor and fragrance company. And oh my gosh, I thought I had arrived. I was finally in a place of impact and influence and all the bells and whistles, and then things change. I realized the job was much harder and scarier, and I also realized I was no longer the smartest person in the room, but I had amazing technical people around me. And so with not having the greatest results that I acquired and having to turn a region around, I realized, as a person, my mindset and leadership had to change. 

And with that, I realized when I went to a global meeting, and this is a major inflection point in my career, most of the leaders went in and said, we are going to do project A, B and C to get X, Y and Z results. And that's what we always did. And I said I needed a different approach. I needed to change my mindset. What did I need to do differently as a leader to get a different outcome, not just results? And so I went to this conference and gave my story, I felt so great because I had discovered who I was, to help the people in my care struggle less so they could spend more time doing the things that they love to do with themselves, family and community. That was a greater purpose than just getting results for customers. And so I delivered this with pride to only receive Deb, that was very nice, but you didn't spend enough time talking about the results that you're going to get from your projects. 

And it was like, ah, did I miss the mark? And I was so deflated. And then during lunch, feeling deflated still, my colleagues came to me and said, Deb, we love what you did. We need different leaders who think differently in order to get different outcomes versus the same results. And that was the beginning of knowing I was doing something different. Now fast forward, I was able to change the results in my region. Take going from number four. Move to number two because I realized my greatest achievement was to unleash the potential of the people in my care. 

And we did move to number two, but I already knew I was a different leader. I got kicked out of the nest about six years ago and said, I want to be able to do the same work, not for big corporate but serve a small and medium sized business clientele and manufacturing, because they are agile. They have a great culture. They love the people that are working with them, and sometimes they exceed the capacity or capability and value my expertise. And so I really realized my purpose was I am going to open up a consulting business and help that highly aware C suite, leader, CEO or owner, be able to fulfill the capacity or capability that they need to get through a transformation or a transition, et cetera. And that's the work I love to do, because they care about their people, and so do I. And ultimately, we elevate the leader and we elevate the people for a lasting impact. And that's a bit of my backstory. I'll pause there. But there's so much to who we are. I've got so much purpose. Happy to answer more. No,

Marcel Schwantes 06:08
I just everything you just said resonates with me as well. Because there's, there's, there's always sort of a turnaround story. My turnaround story was I was also a leader in the HR world who saw horrific examples of how managers were treating people and how that was bleeding money, i.e., in the form of low retention, low engagement and obviously turnover and my own manager was treating me that way, and I became one of the one of the statistics of actually leaving the company because of how I was being treated. And so that began my whole investigation of, okay, wait, there's got to be a better way of leading. 

And the next leader that I reported to is a high level, C level person, was what will become, what became known as a servant leader, and he led by empowering you, growing you, taking care of your needs and making sure that you were set up for success. There's still accountability there, and I still had to perform at a high level and achieve excellence. But I wasn't just left out, you know, to basically left out hanging and to my own devices without being mentored and providing resources, et cetera. And so that was the example that I saw, sort of like this is the bar, the high bar, of leadership. And then that began my whole, you know, journey, sort of like, like you, how do we teach these principles to other people that are in positions of power so that they can maximize human potential? 

And the care piece came in on the front end. I mean, really all over the care piece was so integral, and in how people perform, and we'll talk about them, but just sort of, there's, there's some similarities there in this, in the stories. I am curious as well, tell me a little bit about this without giving too much away about the book, yet, I'm just curious about how your superpower is lowering the temperature and elevating conversations with empathy and patience. How does that play a role in your say, your executive sessions, your coaching sessions, etc.

Deborah Coviello 08:40
So the more you listen to me, I have been told that there is something about my voice that's very calming. So who I've got some good genes here, and thank goodness I feel confident enough to share my voice. But there's a couple pivotal points here that made me start realizing my superpower, my gift, and kudos for people that actually give feedback. And one of them, I remember, again, sometimes it's a quality leader. There's a customer complaint, the sky is falling. I'm called into meetings to help try to get sort through what's the problem and what are we trying to solve. And a wise leader won't necessarily be the one that has all the answers. 

Again, when we're engineers, we're celebrated for quick answers, raising our hand, but a leader needs to really listen to the room, feel the temperature in the room, and be able to understand with enough information to be able to reframe back what they heard in a deliberate, concise, calming voice, versus adding fuel to the fire. And I had one person say to me, I said, Deb, your voice is so calming. There's a reason for that, because when everybody's saying their hair is on fire, you need a calming voice to put rationale so to focus people and have confidence that we don't know how to solve this, but know we're going to get there. 

And so what I have found in business is obviously being a deep listener, which. Superpower and truly seeing people, and then being able to say, I see you, and this is what I think the problem is, and this and what you see is the energy in people's shoulders relax. It goes down, and then you start seeing the head bob as you're reframing and saying what you think the problem is, and what the solution is, when you see the energy come down and then a big sigh, you know, you've lowered the temperature that okay, this person gets me in front of me, and they're going to be my guide or partner to get through this. So when we talk about lowering the temperature, yeah, inside, oh my, how am I going to solve this problem here? But on the outward side, I exude that confidence by my voice and just lowering the temperature, we're going to get through this. 

Marcel Schwantes 10:47
So, yeah, you've lowered the temperature, you've lowered the cortisol levels, you've lowered the heart rate. I mean, it's and you're speaking to some of the principles we're going to talk about related and I can't wait to dive into the first one, peace of mind. But before we let the whole cat out of the bag, talk about the inspiration behind the book, the CEOs companies. 

Deborah Coviello 11:12
So the inspiration for the book came from some great, honest feedback. So I hung my shingle and I say, oh, LinkedIn. Put some videos up, put some posts here, put this, put that, and just start putting stuff out there. And people said, God, I love what you talk about, but we don't know what you're about. Like, what's your system? What's your process? Which gave me feedback to realize, oh, I don't have a system. I haven't put this neatly in a box. My intellectual property people can't be able to associate with it. So it was like, oh, I need to kind of create a framework. And so again, being a quality engineer professional, it used to be my house of quality, you know, with the top being peace of mind and my pillars and foundation. 

And when I said, from a marketing perspective, who the heck is that going to resonate with? I started noodling on a piece of paper, and all of a sudden a compass came to me, where the CEO's compass, the northernmost point is peace of mind, that's where we're trying to get to get back on track. And around that came the additional PS, or seven compass points. And with that, I said to myself, This resonates with a C suite leader who may be off track. What is the tool of choice, a compass. And so that enabled me to put down a framework, a system, to be able to say, this is how I think you can use the compass to get back on track.

Marcel Schwantes 12:34
All right, so we touched on this a little bit off air is, is that if you have a compass, that's great. It keeps you on track. It gives you an idea of where you're supposed to go, right your final destination. That also implies that a lot of CEOs or leaders are off track, and they don't know where they might be lost in the woods trying to find their way out? Is that a true statement? What's causing them to be off track? 

Deborah Coviello 13:06
So it's one of those things, their superpower becomes their demise. They have a proven track record of being that transformational leader. They've been there, done that. They can drop into a situation, say, I can do this. It's a sense of pride, a sense of confidence. But I have found over and over again, something changes or circumstances that they've never been subjected to, and they are no longer the answer person. And in their capacity, there aren't people on their team that can answer it. And so in the moment, they feel like I should be able to solve this, I need to work harder, and then what happens is, too much time has passed, and what was just kind of flood butterflies in their stomach. I feel a little bit off track, muscle through at work a few more hours, eventually it turns into crisis. 

And so I beg leaders, as soon as you're starting to get that funny feeling like, okay, we're starting to get a few more customer complaints. I just lost my quality leader. They've got new requirements. I'll figure it out. That's the perfect time to say I need some external help, or use a compass, because I'm telling you, the old playbook is not going to work with you. Where, if you work harder smarter, you're not going to get there. The Compass provides you additional insights. Where it's more human centric, it's more love centric, where unleashing the potential of your people is actually what you need, not necessarily more resources, more technology, etc. So it just it happens to them because it's a sense of pride, and they don't know how to get out of their own way, and they're starting to struggle. 

Marcel Schwantes 14:39
Yeah, there's a big blind spot. Yeah. Okay, before hanging on, folks, what we're going to open up this compass we're getting, we're going to get there. But there's something I want to get out of the way early on in the book, you emphasize investing in and I'm borrowing your words mentoring or people become an expense. So invest. In mentoring, or people become an expense. What do you mean by that?

Deborah Coviello 15:05
So it comes from so many different directions. If we don't have a system, a program, it doesn't have to be mentorship for which we're checking in with people. And I even talk about this during one on ones. So often we have one on ones with people, we just go to, Okay, how's that report coming? How's that project going. We don't invest in personal development. Now, what people might say, Well, I'm a business. I don't have to invest in personal development. They got that. I got a business to run. But I would say at every level of leadership, you need to have some kind of mentoring or coaching program, because personally, I struggled, and either I didn't have a mentor, I didn't seek one out, but I made a lot of mistakes along the way. 

Now I'm on a journey here to say, here's how you should or shouldn't communicate, stakeholder management, how to align, how to negotiate, how to advocate, how to have critical conversations. Unless you have that support system to develop those essential skills, you're only going to get so far in your technical areas of capability, and then again, when you don't have that mentorship program in place, working harder and faster and longer hours, is not going to do it. People are going to leave. Or what might have been a high performer starts degrading to just an average and a poor performer. 

And then people say, what happened? They become the bottom 10% you dismiss them, if you don't even give them feedback, and you let them go. They were lost souls. So again, I call that corporate destabilization. If you're not there, nurturing and coaching some of those skills and being brave enough to have them, talent goes you lose knowledge. And that's the beginning of the end for a company. So it's an investment, it's an investment. People are an investment, but they could also be an expense on the way out.

Marcel Schwantes 16:42
Oh, that's so good. Okay, let's open up this compass. If you've seen a compass lately, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm picturing in my mind, and your book has, has the visuals, you know, the old, the old, I don't know those, like maybe Indiana Jones movies, right with There you go. Yeah, folks, if you're watching on YouTube, Deb just pulled out the cover, and the Compass has compass points on it. That kind of keeps you on track of where you're supposed to go in your journey, right? So you came up with eight points. We're not going to have time to go over all eight. But could you give maybe a little sneak preview of each of the eight, and then we'll dive into about four of them.

Deborah Coviello 17:25
So the most important one is peace of mind. And we can talk about this, but one of the things I talk about is that it's not a result, it's not a metric. And people say you need to have targets, goals, KPIs, et cetera, but peace of mind is ultimately the outcome of what we're looking for, because you can get a sales quota, you can get an operational efficiency, etc., but when you have peace of mind, it's that peace of mind, knowing that your people are performing at their highest potential, with purpose, and those closest to your customers or clients feel it that they are being taken care of. 

And when your people have the confidence, the capability, the capacity, because you've clearly articulated the purpose and that you unleash their potential, you start seeing a team perform at a level where you can just like they've got this, and I don't have to worry, and I can sleep at night. So again, we can go deep into peace of mind. But aligned with that, the second one is being is purpose. And so I once had a salesperson say to me, and this stuck with me, that we don't necessarily want to be number one amidst all of our competitors, but we want to be the favorite. And what that means the favorite different being the number one is we may not be the cheapest, we may not have the best quality, but when our customers need us to help them out of a pickle, maybe we made a mistake. They remember the last thing that you did with them and how you made them feel and had your back. So being the favorite can be a purpose. 

And again, when people have purpose and you say, how can we achieve this purpose, you unleash people's ideation versus saying, I just need you to get this report out every single Friday, you squelch that creativity, and that's all you get. So having a clearly defined purpose and people living, that is number two. But a couple of the compass points, pride and past are the ones that I have often found missing from many corporations. We can fix people, we can fix process, we can fix tools and platforms, but the past is understanding where these people came from. 

Maybe you acquired a business or a business unit or a team, and so often we say, okay, guys, come on board. Here's the SOP. Let's go. We need to take time to understand that, because when I've done that with acquisitions, why did we bring in this culture, what made them highly successful as a small company, and spending time to understand their past. It's not about you got to change, but what can we bring forward from your past and bring it into the future? And pride is a little bit on the individual level. Again, we acquire people. Maybe there's this older person in the corner. They're super smart, but maybe they're a naysayer and difficult. Sometimes we just accept them at face value. You. 

But what we should do, from a pride perspective, is understand what is their unique value, and shine a light on that, because their intellectual property is as important as any patent or anything that you come up with in your company, product or service, when we don't pay respect to understanding that gift, whether you use it now or later, you've paid dividends in that trust, building with that person, because you care about them, and you know what, they'll have your back. We don't do that well enough in the larger corporations. It's about head on get those results. But when we slow down as leaders and look or have we truly celebrated the past and the purpose, let's shore that up. Even if it's been a while, we can go back, and then you find the trust, the people, the confidence, ultimately helps you to get to peace of mind. So those are just a few of the compass points, but so many leaders miss it amidst trying to get results. 

Marcel Schwantes 20:49
Well, yeah, diving a little deeper on peace of mind, you're right. I mean, it's, it's not often talked about, right peace of mind, it's, it's, it's just not on, on, on people's radars, and I know that stories differ about peace of mind differ from CEO to CEO. Everyone has a unique experience, right? But I don't know. What would you say, maybe from an example of a consulting client, what would you say defines true peace of mind for a CEO at that level?

Deborah Coviello 21:24
I really appreciate this, because this was one of the experiences that was an input to what is peace of mind look like. And so I was about when I was a quality engineer, we made a mistake. We contaminated some material that went to a customer that had to get returned, destroyed, and we damaged the trust, and we damaged a lot of material, and it was an expense. So as part of the opportunity to correct this, obviously, we error proof the system. We retrained the people, but first we did a video, and I was the camera person, videoing a supervisor explaining our new processes, training to do it right in the future. And the interesting thing was, an operator, a technician, started popping into the frame, and it was like, very comical. 

And I we stopped the filming, and I said, Do you want to be in the video? And he said, Yeah, I'd like to. So we took the supervisor out and started filming the operator. And when I asked them to tell us about this particular step, he said, Well, this is what I do when I pull this lever to pour this particular ingredient and pay attention. It's important we have my hand here scan first, and poor never let my hand off. He was able to explain what the process was, why the error proofing was important, and what was the risk of not following the process, and what was the impact on the customer of not following or following the process. 

And it was in that moment I said to myself, as I'm filming, and I'm getting I keep getting goose bumps every time I tell the story, but the person closest to your customer understood the importance of what they're doing, why they're doing it, and they could articulate back to anybody else the impact of the customer. And when you have reached your people to that level. In that moment you said, I can rest. I have peace of mind. I don't have to worry about the front line, because we've done everything right to unleash their potential to do the right thing. That moment is peace of mind, and I hope every leader has an opportunity to see or feel that. Yeah,

Marcel Schwantes 23:18
I never equate until now. This is so powerful. I never equated the strength of leadership to empower others, to remove obstacles from their path actually coming back to you as peace of mind. And of course, it makes perfect sense that if you're a CEO that's going to take care of your people. You're not going to work. You're going to worry less about the business, because they're going to take care of the business. They're going to take care of the customer, if you are setting them up for success on the front lines. And that should give you peace of mind.

Deborah Coviello 23:56
Yeah. You know, it's interesting. One other quick story. I used to work with a senior leader at one of these flavor companies, and they were just not very accountable for finishing their action items for the project or initiative. And I would go to their office and like, what about this? And what about that? Just trying to build consensus. What can we do? And they always had a reason. They were delayed because they're spending so much time on the production floor. So my job is to make sure they're trained, and they've got everything they need to get their job done. And so she was very much on the floor and not in the office getting some of these action items done. 

And it used to very frustrating, very frustrated. But then obviously, with some maturity and some gray hairs, I realized my greatest gift is to be present for my people. What is it that you need help with? What are the barriers? What can I do to unleash be able to move stuff that you've been doing that shouldn't be your accountability? Help coach you so that you have greater impact. Let's have a strategy. I'll grease the skids for you so you can go in and do your thing. Oh my, I have since changed so much because that's the more purposeful work is to remove the barriers of your people. They will get the results. If you can do that?

Marcel Schwantes 25:01
Yes. All right, let's move to the next one that I picked out, just to dig a little deeper. And that's pride.

Deborah Coviello 25:08
Yeah. So pride. This is an interesting one, and a quick story about that. So again, I acquired a team that needed to solve a particular problem. There were 222, subject matter experts that stood side by side, so smart, but they rarely spoke up. And they were sitting in a room one day, and they would just give minimal information, but I took the time offline to understand, why are you so quiet? You have so much information, and they shared stories of where in the past, they would offer their opinions, but then leadership would not listen to them. And also, there may have been some opportunities where maybe it was used against them, so they quieted themselves. 

But I found that once I took the time to understand where their area of expertise is, 30 years of relationships in the industry, and how they could grease the skids to get through certain things, or what technical knowledge that they had, oh my, they started showing up in my meetings, speaking up, offering their opinion and leveraging it, and I started seeing their expertise being more valued, and them offering more of their value. So it pays to ask the question, even if you've had a team member for two or three years and people just label them as difficult, there's no shame in going back and say, let’s just talk. I just really, I may not really understand all that you've done. 

And even if there's skills, you know, maybe there are wiz at, I don't know V, lookup tables and x, I don't know what it is, you may not need that now, but because you asked and you cared, they will have your back. They will deliver for you. They will give you information that maybe you didn't even ask for because they want to protect you. People will show up if you respect their intellectual property. Yeah,

Marcel Schwantes 26:47
yeah. How does humility play a role in the in the pride? I'm assuming that there's good pride and there's bad pride, and if you show up with you bit, what's the word hubristic pride? I think, is the is the word hubris, right? How do we fix this pride issue? Do we bring in more humility, into our leadership? 

Deborah Coviello 27:10
And you say pride, if I could just clarify a little bit like pride, I don't want to move off my pedestal, you know, I rigid and holding firm. Yeah, pride, I think again, this leads very much into your brand is leading with empathy and care. We may I find when you have to have those difficult conversations, start with a grounding statement or conversation. We all care about these customers and being the best. And, you know, having the best solutions for them may not be the cheapest, and we're all part of that. And get them to start nodding yes, yeah, that I care about that too. Starting at a place of calm, what we can agree to is great. Now we may say something like, I care about what you know, and I want to understand why maybe you are this way. 

And what is it that you feel so strongly about that's important to what you think we need to do, and that starts going into maybe the past. Well, in the past, we would try these ideas and they never would work. But I still feel firm about that. I find that if you ask and ask curious questions about why are they so set in their ways, you can understand the reasons why and celebrate, you know what I didn't think about, that maybe we do need to do some extra testing here before we move on, just to be sure, because we don't want to have a loss, etc., I find when people have so much pride, spends a little bit of time in a place of curiosity to understand. I made a quick note my mother, she hoards things. She saves things she didn't grow up in the Depression. 

And I asked her the other day, I said, Why? Why do you just hold on to everything? And I did learn something about her past that early in her childhood, some of her belongings were actually given away, and I never knew that. But then I, while I still don't agree with the way she is, I can at least understand it, and it kind of unleashed some tension in the relationship. So curiosity, ask questions unleash tension, or potential.

Marcel Schwantes 29:03
I want to cover the compass point of past, but, and you, we've talked a little bit about it, but let me frame it like this, the way that you wrote it in the chapter, it's the past. Skipping the past is a recipe for failure. Yeah, I got a story. Yeah, share that and put more meaning into that, into that. What was what mean by that? 

Deborah Coviello 29:29
So again, I love these experiences. You know, in corporate America, sometimes you gain market share by acquiring companies. What can complement your portfolio of offers or services? So we had acquired a company, and in order to be able to enable their or unleash their potential, we had to get them on our ERP system. And from the beginning, the rest of the organization was setting it up as an IT project. How quickly can we get the master data and all the information in the system? And we're going to set people up and train them on the new system. Them, and they were going like gangbusters. 

And I kept saying, wait a second, do we know anything about this new organization? Their capability, their capacity to even go live on this aggressive timeline? Well, I realized I needed to get to know the people, so I spent a lot of time at the plant that we were acquiring to understand what made them so wonderful and their can do attitude and by the way, what strengths did they have that I didn't have on the large mothership? And so I spent time getting to know them and their pride and what made them so agile and why they had such a great culture. What could we learn from them? 

Well, fast forward, on the side of the business that didn't focus on the human and the past, and they were focused on an IT project, because they didn't get take the chance to understand well, how were things before and what were the new customers? They couldn't get the systems to work, nothing could get out the door. And the customers were getting angry. We were late, late, late, and we wound up, I think, suing us because we disrupted their entire supply chain from a service perspective, because they just focused on these tech solution, whereas I had a quality responsibility, and anything that we eventually delivered to our customers did not have any quality issues in that team that I acquired because they felt like they could trust us, became resourceful, and they knew who to connect with in the other parts of the organization. 

How do I solve this? How do I get this through the quality queue? We didn't have any quality issues. We didn't disrupt the customer from a quality perspective. So I firmly believe, again, slow down to speed up. Get to know the people and what made them so good. Why did their customers, you know, really appreciate what they did, and then they build so much trust, and they just feel immediately part of the team. So embracing the past will pay dividends going forward, because if you skip it, you're going to lose a lot of money in the end. And you may not see it right away, but it's invisible if you don't acknowledge the past.

Marcel Schwantes 31:53
Yeah, yeah, embrace the past. Well, the last one I think it's your second compass point, but I left it for last, and that's purpose. I'm just curious, why did you choose this as a compass point? Somebody, a lot of people miss, miss the purpose piece. 

Deborah Coviello 32:13
So often the purpose is buried in a strategic presentation. It may be. Here's our mission statement and our vision over here, and people read it or they see it once, but people cannot articulate a sense of purpose. But like I gave in that example before, when people can articulate that, it's Well, I'm here to provide the favorite. And there's an interesting thing about what we ask our people to do. If we say, how do we improve this report? Because you need to get this report out efficiently, people will be heads down and only deliver that. But when we as leaders say, Okay, we've got a lot on our plate here, but ultimately, what we're trying to do is have a sense of purpose, and we want to be the favorite. What do we need to do to be the favorite? 

Well, that's a much broader question than, how do I get this report out on time efficiently every week, you ask people to come to work with their minds and creativity, because we have that we value humanity, right? Versus just asking to stay within the lines which can kill people. And I have stories about where I've been asked to stay within lines, but we hear here for a greater purpose. My business to help C suite leaders navigate with confidence and struggle less became crystal clear, and also serves as a decision making tool, because when people can ground themselves on what the purpose is, they know what to search for it in or why not to it's a great guiding principle, because you can't be there all the time. But when people live with their purpose, act and behave with the purpose. It leads to peace of mind. It's right next to peace of mind. You know, people are acting on the best of the company themselves and the customers, purpose.

Marcel Schwantes 33:50
Yeah, that's great. So Sticking with the theme of purpose, let's think about some actionable steps here. How do we turn purpose into action?

Deborah Coviello 34:01
So it's so much more than just saying we're here to be the favorite. And you can show that in a PowerPoint, and it's one way communication, but really, leaders have to go another step to engage in two way understanding, because cascading information may or may not be understood. There's a good chance a percent of the people just go in one ear and out the other. Just tell me what I need to do to do my job. But when we take the time to have conversations with our people say, Okay, this is the purpose to be our the favorite of our customers, tell me what that means in terms of your job. I mean, we did this in the quality area, we'd have the quality policy. But quality policy, can you translate it into, what does it mean to your job? 

And when we say, purpose. People say, oh, okay, I get it well, I know that I need to be able to get this job out every day by three o'clock in order to get it to the shipping department to get it here, because I know that getting things to my customer on time is really important. So that's my purpose. I do everything I can to make sure. I meet this time every day in order to be the favorite, and if I get a call from that customer, I put everything aside. I am there to serve them. So that's what a production planner might say. You know, getting making sure everything gets it. Then you say, okay, so you really get it, versus Oh, I'm here to make sure that we have an on time service performance of 98.2 Well, that's what the top line is. But to know what it is in terms of your own job that's you've clearly assured that they understand the purpose versus just communicating it. 

Marcel Schwantes 35:29
Okay, so one of the questions that as I was formulating my talking points, I actually cheated a little bit, because I wanted to see what questions your PR person was suggesting, and one popped out at me. So I wanted to explore this one. Okay? And that is, it's the little secret CEOs don't want to share. I'm curious what that is. Do you recall I kind of have a hint about that. And it may, it may be, it may be dealing with not having the capacity to coach or mentor employees.

Deborah Coviello 36:12
Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's really interesting. So you know, your job as the CEO is to make sure that you've got the right people on the ship or the boat, and it is about unleashing their potential. Yeah, and how do we do that, whether it is mentoring, coaching, having support structure, asking for feedback or giving feedback, you know, so often we will, as an example, elevate people. They were great, technical individual contributors, and then we elevate them to a level of being the technical director, and with great pride, they'll take it on. Yet never do we coach those essential skills that they may now need, other than being just a technical leader. 

But how do I negotiate? How do I influence? How do I present messaging? How do I deal with that department over there that's in a silo and have a difficult conversation leaders, as they grow their organization, maybe they're very flat in the beginning, and it's a mom and pop. Everybody's got a can do attitude, but as the organization rises and grows, and you've got that levels of separation, you have to promote people to get the work done. I would heavily suggest that, in whatever form makes sense, invest in that mentorship at all levels of the organization. 

I never had a mentor or coach, and it wasn't until I left the corporate space and I'm having my own business, I have multiple mentors and multiple coaches, and they help me to see things I never saw in myself, as well as hone those essential skills. So rather than going through the school of hard knocks, why don't we provide it as part of, I would say, an investment in your people versus an expense when you don't provide that, it becomes a strategic imperative, not just the lagging indicator of employee retention, but what are the leading indicators of mentorship and coaching to make sure they have the skills and regularly providing feedback that is actionable. That's the secret that they sometimes it's not top of mind, but I let's whisper in their ear now they need to.

Marcel Schwantes 38:09
That's interesting, because we started the whole conversation sort of at the beginning of emphasizing the importance of mentorship. And here we are talking about the fact that they sometimes hold back this little secret that they may not have either the capacity, or they just don't emphasize the importance of it enough. Because, you know, CEOs are stuck in vision strategy, but they're not looking at the people as the solution to their problems.

Deborah Coviello 38:38
And think about external support, because even as you're growing, you may not have that, you may not need a full-time person. Think about your business model, what is your core competency? And then think about what do you bolt on at strategic points in time to unleash the potential of your people? And then maybe you don't need them and then bring them back when there's another transformation or change, it's something that you need to think about what's my core competency, and then how do I support the people to get to peace of mind. 

Marcel Schwantes 39:05
There you go. All right, so I have my compass. I'm a CEO. I am fully bought into this. I'm ready for my journey. Is there a first? Which direction am I going?

Deborah Coviello 39:18
Well, first you got to ask yourself, you know, where are you at? Well, actually, I wish I could bring the book and start reading a couple of the chapters here. But one of the things is I even start with them. I said, you know, you, as a leader, need to, if you're feeling off track, you need to accept the fact or have the awareness that maybe you need to lead differently. You know, if you're looking for a quick fix and a cookie cutter approach, you're not going to get that from my book. So actually, chapter one, I say, you know, are you ready to change or think about changing and maybe making course corrections suck in your pride, and if you're not put the book down until you're ready. So that's the first thing. Is you need to be open to maybe consider a new mindset and not be thinking about results and think about, what do I need to change in my leadership to get a different outcome?

Marcel Schwantes 39:59
Ah. Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. Deb, okay, we're approaching our speed around, but before we get there, is there anything that we have not covered a year? Like, oh, I absolutely have to tell Marcel this for his listeners.

Deborah Coviello 40:13
So it kind of summarizes and emphasizes. I do have to mention it is that corporate destabilization. I use that expression when we don't invest in mentorship, we don't invest in the essential skills your technical leaders or your leaders rise to leadership positions for which they're not prepared. And you might say, Oh, I can ignore that. Maybe I'll just give that project to somebody else. The longer we ignore it, it becomes kind of something that's festering underneath the surface. And what happens is then the people that are in that person's care are not getting the support that they need, and so they may be high performers and revert back to just an average or maybe even a poor performer. 

And then you put them in a nine box, you put them on a scale, and then you start exiting the poor performers, or they self select out and leave when we don't stabilize and provide that mentorship or coaching. As you're growing an organization and elevating people, it destabilizes the organization, because you start losing people from the bottom and you're not getting the efficiency that you want. So really think about it. How do we elevate, support, coach the competency, so you can unleash the potential and keep your talent?

Marcel Schwantes 41:20
Beautifully put. Okay, strap on your seat belt. Here we go.

Deborah Coviello 41:24
I'm ready. I think.

Marcel Schwantes 41:28
All right, what are you learning right now? Whether it's a book, a podcast, a TED talk…

Deborah Coviello 41:35
Oh, what am I learning right now? Okay, be more present. I am getting coached right now. I am like trying as a CEO of my own company. I'm going to be on a stage. I'm going to do that. And I get frustrated when things don't happen fast enough. I have learned to slow down and just be present and focus on the process, something I teach in my book, the focus on the now in the process, and celebrate the wins I am learning that versus flying by those little wins. Appreciate it now, because you don't know if you're ever going to get to that end result. Learn to be present. Learn to celebrate the wins and trust the process.

Marcel Schwantes 42:10
One of the greatest lessons you have learned in life?

Deborah Coviello 42:14
Trust myself. Trust my intuition and my gut, because I can no longer serve myself using my technical knowledge and intellect, but I never used to trust my gut, because as an engineer, we have numbers and statistics improve. But if something doesn't feel right, it's probably not right. And if your heart is telling you to go in a certain direction, it's trust him. That's something I'm learning.

Marcel Schwantes 42:37
Someone that inspires you, past or present?

Deborah Coviello 42:41
Past or present it I you know what it has to be my family. I mean, they are an inspiration. They're a reflection of me. They inspire me with what they're doing. It's also reflection on what I do. I mean, I don't go for the famous people, but my children, my husband, inspire me every day for either to be my best or for me to help them be their best. 

Marcel Schwantes 43:00
One of the most random things you've ever done?

Deborah Coviello 43:08
I'm a curler, okay? I'll put that out there. I throw stones on ice, I sweep and yell at people. That is pretty different, random. And by the way, I won a silver medal at the arena curling nationals in 2017 so that's kind of cool. I'm unique that way. And if you want to learn about curling, please contact me. I'll tell you all about it. 

Marcel Schwantes 43:26
No, that is the supremeness of coolness, right there. So thank you for that curling. You know, it's not the coolest sport, but I mean, now that you mentioned it, the fact that you did it, it makes it cool Absolutely. All right, your biggest hope for 2025

Deborah Coviello 43:43
my reach. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have my own podcast is also being on yours, because the one to many being you, me, our words, our thoughts, being able to reach and inspire people that we may not ever know. My goal is to invest in my wellbeing, invest in my myself and my business, and invest in my reach. I want to continue to reach more people and try and just enjoy the process, speaking, podcasting, etc. Oh,

Marcel Schwantes 44:11
man, we share that alike. Yeah. My hope is just one person that that gets these concepts, these ideas, and goes out and changes the world and maybe tells another person who will, and then we just create a groundswell, absolutely, of change and transformation. So well, you survived the speed round.

Deborah Coviello 44:33
You twisted it up on me. I thought I was ready, and then you change it on me. But hey, I'm on my toes. I'm dancing here. Fire, another one out.

Marcel Schwantes 44:41
All right, Deb, we bring it home with two questions, as we do with every guest. The first one is the love question. I have to say, it very manly because of the word love. So it's the love question, okay, so sticking with things that we've talked about. How do we lead as. CEOs with more actionable, practical love.

Deborah Coviello 45:04
What I would say here is show people you care, listen deeply, ask questions, be very curious about their perspective or what they're feeling, and then being able to, after you've heard that, be able to reframe and share with them what you've heard and what they think they mean. And when we do that, we show a strong connection with humanity. People are not transactions. We are humans. And when we can listen and show that we heard them and we understand them and see them for who they are, that is a way of showing just practical love in the workplace. 

Marcel Schwantes 45:35
That's so good. Okay, bring us home that one final key takeaway. What do you want to leave us with?

Deborah Coviello 45:44
Trust yourself when you are looking out the window and not sure what else to do when something feels off track, have the courage to ask for help. It is a source of strength.

Marcel Schwantes 45:57
Folks, the book, again, is called The CEO's Compass. Your Guide to Get Back on Track. Get it came out. How long ago did it? Did that book come out Deb? 2021, August. Yeah. So right after COVID. So even more important to understand there to make the transition from a pre COVID, COVID world to a post COVID world. So get that book wherever books are sold. Deb, if people want to connect with you, learn more about you. Where can they go?

Deborah Coviello 46:29
I'll make it simple. Go to my website. dropinceo.com. d-r-o-p-i-n-c-e-o dot com, you get to see my podcast, my book, my blog, as well as a contact page. I just love to have a conversation. Maybe share a free copy of my chapter of my book. I just want to connect with you, learn about you, and just see where the relationship might go. So dropinceo.com is the best way to find me. LinkedIn is my playground as well.

Marcel Schwantes 46:59
Very good. Hey, it's been a blast. And I knew I said it at the beginning and that, I mean, I'm just nodding my head back and forth every time you're talking about things, I'm like, yep, yep, yep. It's just things that we just, we just need to keep banging on that drum, and hopefully people start to just get it and spread it far and wide. And so much I appreciate you being here to not only to be a testimony for your own transformation as a leader, but to being the example for others to carry forward. So thank you. Yeah,

Deborah Coviello 47:34
I love your work. Thank you so much for the opportunity, and wish you continued success with the show. Excellent.

Marcel Schwantes 47:39
You can keep the conversation going on social media with #loveandactionpodcast and look for my show notes on my website. I'm going to have all of Deb’s info in there including a link to this very episode that you can watch on YouTube and you can find all of that at marcelschwantes.com. For Deb Coviello and yours truly, remember, in the end, love always wins. We'll see you next time!